Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada.
Integr Comp Biol. 2017 Oct 1;57(4):846-856. doi: 10.1093/icb/icx042.
Various aspects of sociality, including mate choice, are dependent on social information. Mate choice is a social cognitive process that encompasses mechanisms for acquiring, processing, retaining and acting on social information. Social cognition includes the acquisition of social information about others (i.e., social recognition) and social information from others (i.e., social learning). Social cognition involves both assessing other individuals and their condition (e.g., health, infection status) and deciding about when and how to interact with them, thus, providing a frame-work for examining mate choice and its associated neurobiological mechanisms. In vertebrates, and in particular rodents, odors are an essential source of direct and indirect social information not only from others but also for others. Here, we briefly consider the relations between social cognition and olfactory-mediated mate choice in rodents. We briefly discuss aspects of: (1) social recognition of potential mates and the impact of infection threat on mate choice; (2) social learning and the utilization of the mate choices of others ("mate-choice copying") including in the context of infection; and (3) the neurobiological mechanisms, with particular focus on particular the roles of the nonapeptide, oxytocin and the steroid hormones, estrogens, associated with social cognition and mate choice.
社会性的各个方面，包括配偶选择，都依赖于社会信息。配偶选择是一种社会认知过程，包括获取、处理、保留和利用社会信息的机制。社会认知包括获取关于他人的社会信息（即社会识别）和来自他人的社会信息（即社会学习）。社会认知既包括评估其他个体及其状况（例如健康、感染状况），也包括决定何时以及如何与他们互动，因此，为研究配偶选择及其相关神经生物学机制提供了一个框架。在脊椎动物中，特别是在啮齿类动物中，气味是直接和间接社会信息的重要来源，不仅来自于其他个体，也来自于其他个体。在这里，我们简要地讨论了社会认知和嗅觉介导的啮齿类动物配偶选择之间的关系。我们简要讨论了以下几个方面：（1）潜在配偶的社会识别以及感染威胁对配偶选择的影响；（2）社会学习以及利用他人的配偶选择（“配偶选择复制”），包括在感染背景下；（3）神经生物学机制，特别关注与社会认知和配偶选择相关的神经肽、催产素和类固醇激素雌激素的特定作用。
